Cinco de Mayo (or Kentucky Derby!) Pinata Cookies

This weekend presents a holiday dilemma. On the one hand, there’s Cinco de Mayo, a day most often celebrated in the US with guacamole, tequila, and an abundance of sombreros and mangled Spanish. On the other, there’s the Kentucky Derby, a day most often celebrated with Mint Juleps, betting, and pretending to know anything about racehorses.

Photograph by Sandra Denneler

But today’s Kookery stares that holiday bull in its face and grabs it by both horns–and it’s filled with candy, to boot. This insane recipe is technically called “Cinco de Mayo pinata cookies,” but they’re shaped like horses (or at least burros), and could easily be modified into all-purpose “Kentucky Derby de Mayo pinata cookies,” if you just made the things a horsey brown instead of rainbow-striped.

Photograph by Sandra Denneler

The recipe, from Sandra Denneler at SheKnows.com, also shares an exciting adaptability with real pinatas: you can fill these guys with pretty much anything. We don’t recommend being this evil, but just imagine the face of the unlucky partygoer who gets the one stuffed with hot peppers.